Obama promulgates lie about Fast and Furious snafu, police say

By: Jim Kouri, CPP

In response to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on the ATF gun-smuggling scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious on Wednesday, while on the campaign trail President Barack Obama once again blamed George W. Bush for the deadly debacle, ABC news reporter Jake Tapper said on Saturday.

Tapper quotes Obama as saying, “I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration,” the president said. “When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned a inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that in fact Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable.”

From the start, according to a law enforcement source, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was questioned by Congress about Operation Fast and Furious, an ATF operation that ended up a political fiasco, the Democratic Party sent out its operatives armed with talking points that accused the Bush Administration of masterminding the operation.

“The Big Lie is that the Obama Administration simply continued a Bush Administration ATF operation. Fast and Furious is all Obama and Holder. Period. Case closed,” said detective lieutenant Charles Traeja (NYPD-Ret.).

In spite of evidence to the contrary that remains posted on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives web site, the Obama campaign is knowingly with aforethought promulgating a lie. According to former prosecutor now defense attorney Marvin Kobineck, the House and Senate lawmakers should investigate whether any of their witnesses testifying in front of their committee repeated the canard that Bush started Operation Fast and Furious. If they did, it’s perjury and obstruction of justice.

“They are all lying and the evidence is a matter of public record,” said former police detective and military intelligence officer Michael Snopes.

When appearing before the Senate Judiciary and House Oversight Committees, Holder defended the department’s actions and blasted Republicans for trying to ” score political points” in the investigation of the program.

Meanwhile, several Democrat Party talking heads continued to stress that the ATF snafu was actually a President George W. Bush sanctioned operation knowing what they were telling Americans was a false statement.

“It is just another bite at the ‘blame-Bush’ apple for these people,” said political strategist Mike Baker.

Baker, an attorney, notes that the ATF implemented an operation known as Project Gunrunner during the Bush Administration in 2006 as a comprehensive strategy to reduce firearms and explosives related violent crime associated with Mexican criminal organizations operating in the U.S. and Mexico by preventing these organizations from unlawfully acquiring and trafficking firearms and explosives.

Holder called the tactics used in Fast and Furious “flawed” and ” unacceptable,” but said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has made changes in training and oversight measures to ensure such things never happens again.

Operation Fast and Furious involved agents from ATF allowing illegal sales of guns, believed to be destined for Mexican drug cartels, to slip into Mexico, so that they can track sellers and purchasers. But after weapons found at Mexican and U.S. murders were traced back to the program, it was denounced as a failure.

However a small army of Democratic Party talking heads appeared on TV and radio news programs armed with statements stressing that the ATF snafu was actually a President George W. Bush fault, according to a political consultant and attorney.

But according to the ATF web site, through Project Gunrunner, the ATF worked in conjunction with its domestic and international law enforcement partners to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the firearms and explosives trafficking infrastructure of criminal organizations operating in Mexico, along the border, and other areas of the U.S.

Project Gunrunner’s objective was to deny Mexican drug cartels the tools of the trade, which they employ to murder rival drug traffickers, civilians, as well as political, military, and law enforcement figures in order to strengthen their grip on the lucrative drug and firearms routes into and out of the United States, Baker said.

“Intelligence was gathered, analyzed and appropriate leads were disseminated to ATF field offices for investigative action. The information was also shared with Federal, State, local and tribal partners, as well as Mexican law enforcement counterparts,” Lt. Traeja said.

Project Gunrunner investigations resulted in the identification and prosecution of firearms trafficking organizations in all parts of the United States, from Minnesota to Florida to all our border states, where ATF criminal intelligence and tracing data has provided valuable leads used in identifying individuals and organizations providing firearms to Mexican criminal enterprises, Det. Snopes reported.

The Obama-Holder version of the operation did not involve informing the Mexican authorities nor did it have the “controls” in place to prevent a snafu from occurring, according to Baker.

About The Author Jim Kouri, CPP:Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for The Examiner (examiner.com) and New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.
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